A new generation of influencers are presenting a far more authentic look

For the last few years Social Media influencers would flock to "instagrammable" experiences to get that "perfect shot". According to a recent article in The Atlantic, this trend is dying off and getting replaced by a cohort of influencers that want their work to look more real: https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2019/04/influencers-are-abandoning-instagram-look/587803/

Key Takeaway

Brands are going to need to jump on to this more authentic bandwagon to stay relevant, but more importantly, genuine and authentic - a hard thing to pull off when you're hoping your influencers will work with your branding rather than make it their own.

New laser technology will enable WiFi speeds we can't even fathom

Harvard's school of engineering published a finding this week that will open the way to terahertz speed WiFi. See the full note here:

https://www.seas.harvard.edu/news/2019/04/first-laser-radio-transmitter

Key Takeaway

For those of us that remember what life was like before WiFi or worse - dial-up modems, it's worthwhile to try to remember what we took for granted back then, and how blown away we were by streaming video.

This tech will bring on advances well beyond anything most of us are ready to consider, but if you think about the recent black hole discovery, and the amount of data transfer and lag time in that research - this will allow that kind of work to take place in real-time.

San Francisco becomes first state to ban airport facial recognition systems

Last week I wrote about how the US will be rolling out facial recognition to combat immigration issues. This week SF announced that they will ban said tech in their airports, and are hoping for other states to follow suit: https://www.engadget.com/2019/04/24/san-francisco-first-us-city-ban-facial-recognition/

Key Takeaway

The surveillance state fears many of us have seem to working their way into levels of government that may prevent the dystopian future we worry about. Another story this week following this narrative further solidifies this idea - the Pentagon has announced that they may be shutting down the NSAs phone tapping program (for real - and with valid reasons: https://thehill.com/policy/technology/440538-nsa-recommends-ending-mass-phone-data-collection-program-report